Louis, > But I said that the right to work in a capitalist country, including > Chavez's Venezuela or Peron's Argentina, is not the same thing as job > entitlements in Cuba or the USSR, for that matter. This is a fundamental > distinction.
What are "job entitlements" really, when the alternative is a labour camp or prison? One difference between communism in an underdeveloped country and communism in a developed country is that unless there is forced labour in the former case, development will not be possible. Both being distinct from the vague threat of unemployment, to workers in state capitalist industries which have generally been nationalised to _avoid_ the threat that mass unemployment poses to accumulation. > It is what Brus characterized as the Achilles heel of the > Soviet model. Unless you have the lash of unemployment, there will be > "inefficiencies". There are also "inefficiencies" in the remaining state capitalist industries in developed countries, although these "inefficiencies" are disguised by the fact that the undustries concerned are also generally natural monopolies. > I guess you won't be satisfied with anything less than world communism. > What ideas do you have about getting there? I'm not inclined to discuss tactics on an economics mailing list. > I won't even ask you if you > have ever been an activist. That wouldn't be fair. The tone there betrays a problem with _your_ approach.
